I would have to do some digging to find the last time that I opened a new season at the same track that I had closed out the previous one, but that was the case on Saturday as I returned to the Springfield Raceway in southwest Missouri. The track's annual Turkey Bowl had been my last "in person" event back on November 20th and I would open up my 2021 season with an enhanced March Madness event three and a half months later. I say "enhanced" because on Tuesday it was announced that the Super Late Models would be added to the program after the Comp Cams series opener scheduled for the Boothill Speedway in Louisiana had been pushed back a week due to wet grounds. The fact that the B-Mods would be racing for $1,000 to win already had my attention on making the trip to Springfield, but when the Late Models were added the trip was locked in.
Twenty-one Supers were on hand, right about the count that I expected, and the qualifying heats were high speed and loaded with action highlighted by a back and forth battle between Billy Moyer Jr. and Scott Crigler. Crigler would prevail in that one, but with the luck of the draw Moyer Jr. would start from the pole position with his National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member father to his outside for the thirty lap main event.
Junior would get the early advantage, but Crigler would again be on the charge after starting fifth and he would slip under Moyer exiting turn four to take the lead on the fourth circuit around the quick quarter-mile. The racing was intense behind him until the caution waved on lap nine when Patrick Lewis apparently couldn't make it into the infield after circling the low side slowly for two laps.
It was an eventful caution period though as first Jesse Stovall stopped on the inside of the back stretch. His left rear body panel had been bent up a bit and perhaps after racing with the Lucas Oil Late Model Series in Florida where they will take all the time in the world to have an official re-hang a body for you if needed perhaps that was what he was looking for here at Springfield as well? I have to assume because I never did hear an explanation, but Stovall sat there unattended for several caution laps before someone on a four wheeler drove over to him from the infield, got off and looked at the car. I couldn't see whether this was an official or a crewman and I couldn't see whether he touched the car or not since he was on the back stretch, but while this inspection was going on the leader Scott Crigler pulled into the pit area off the back stretch. A flat tire? Again I couldn't tell and if anything was said on the p.a. I must have missed it.
After his time on the bottom of the back stretch, Stovall then drove up to near the entrance of the pits at the end of the back stretch for another brief stop before driving away and lining up second for the restart. The flagman however was signaling for him to go to the rear and I am sure that he was being told the same thing over the Raceceiver, but Stovall continued to ride around in second for three or four laps before he angrily sped around the leader and went back to the pit entrance to voice his opinion. All of this idle time allowed Crigler to return to the track and he would join Stovall at the back for the restart with twenty-one laps remaining.
The elder Moyer would assume the lead for that restart and he would set a blistering pace as Stovall quickly charged back into the top ten after just a couple of laps. The race would stay green from here with Jason Papich, Logan Martin and Kyle Beard in hot pursuit of the leader. All of the leaders were riding the rim, but down low Illinois visitor Bob Gardner had found the bottom to his liking. After starting eleventh Gardner was gradually coming to the front and he moved to the second spot on lap nineteen with Moyer just a few car lengths ahead of him. The challenge for Gardner though was that the lapped car of Doug Tye was also running the berm and it took Gardner three laps and a fade back to fifth before he finally drove around the outside of Tye.
After getting past Gardner and Tye, Beard tried the bottom but he could not make it work as well as Gardner who was again marching his way back to the front and with five laps remaining he was back to second and again closing in on the leader. With two laps remaining Moyer appeared to have enough of a lead to take the win, but as he raced down the back stretch and into turn three the slower car of Ryan Gillmore was in his preferred line. Gardner pounced on the opportunity and he would snatch the lead as the white flag waved with Moyer diving under Gillmore heading into turn one. The legendary driver would then drive deep into turn three on the final lap, but Gardner was perfect on his lower line as he secured the win.
As the car #4G pulled into victory lane I couldn't help but wonder how many of the large crowd on hand asked who the heck this even was as the veteran driver from central Illinois celebrated his memorable win. Logan Martin started seventh and finished third, Beard moved from sixth to fourth while Moyer Jr. filled out the top five. Stovall actually spun to the bottom of turn two on the final lap as the leaders were entering turn three and kudos to the officials for allowing the race to finish under green rather than throwing a quick caution like we would have seen at a lot of other tracks. He would be scored tenth in the final rundown. Former All Missouri Points Modified champion Mitch Keeter made his Late Model debut with a ninth place finish while former Missouri Points Limited Mod champion Ryan Gillmore was eleventh.
The B-Mod feature would follow the Late Models and I thought that I heard it announced that it would be a twenty lap event for the twenty cars that had advanced from the stout field of thirty-six. Arkansas driver Kanyan Methvin who you will commonly find driving in three or four different divisions over the course of a season started from the pole position and he would lead the first four laps before caution waved for a Jaren Martin spin in turn four. One more lap would go in the book before front row starter Weston Holman would get bounced around and spun in turn one and another lap would be completed before Mike Striegel had a tire come apart sending him for a spin in turn one.
Once back to green J.C. Morton, who had started twelfth, slipped under Sam Petty for third exiting turn four on lap seven and as their battle continued into turns one and two Petty would get into the left rear of Morton and the two cars would slide to a stop in a tangle at the start of the back stretch. Morton appeared to be having some fuel pickup issues earlier in the evening so that may have been an issue here as well, but none the less two of the top contenders had now been eliminated.
With that rash of cautions now behind us the race would stay green to the checkers and what a battle this would be with Kris Jackson challenging to the inside and Dayton Pursley to the outside of Methvin. The trio would cross the stripe three wide on lap nine with Pursley even riding up the front stretch wall momentarily. The battle would continue and they would be three wide again at the line on lap ten this time with Methvin down low and Jackson in the middle.
Jackson would ease ahead by a car length to lead lap eleven and his diamond line would continue to thwart the run that Pursley was getting off the top on both ends of the speedway. On lap fourteen Pursley used his run off turn two to drive to the bottom in turn three getting a nose under Jackson and as the leaders exited turn four I was surprised to see the white flag waving. Jackson was able to ward off Pursley on that final lap to take another win here at Springfield and Methvin was able to nip Pursley at the line for second. Chris Spalding who was an early contender after starting fifth finished in the fourth spot while Brandon Bollinger made the long tow from Kewanee, Illinois, to complete the top five. He had started eleventh.
In earlier feature action defending track champion James Redus started from the pole and gave up the lead to Darrell Hurt for four laps before putting the station wagon on the cushion and taking the lead on lap five to win the fifteen lap Pure Stock feature. Former Carroll, Iowa, resident Karla Lampe came from the inside of row five to finish in the runner-up spot with Jeremy Townsend, Hurt and Dalton Roberts next in line.
After a half hour break to re-work the track the Midwest Modified feature was a caution-fest with six of them sprinkled across fifteen green flag laps that saw Jerad McIntire take the win. Even the announcer described it as "the race we thought that we would never see end" and it makes you wonder if the next time this class will not be the second of five features on the schedule. In contrast though, only one caution waved during their three heat races that started the evening.
The Legend Car feature was taking the green as I was pulling out of the parking lot and I see that the top three finished where they started with Grasyn Cox taking the win over Bismarck, North Dakota, traveler Drew Papke and Springfield's Grayson McKiney. Montana's Jay Quenzer finished tenth.
Track owner and promoter Jerry Hoffman is one of the best in the business and this was a great way to kickoff my 2021 racing season. It is a good bet that this will be where it ends as well with another trip to the Turkey Bowl in November. For now race #2 for the year for me is scheduled to be on the final weekend of March at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, and if you are looking to put together your early season targets make sure that you visit the Calendar page at Positively Racing.
Hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch!
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